Dragon Ball Z: Season Six DVD Review

Author

Jason Nimer

Date

9/19/2008

In Short

Now, FUNimation only has three more seasons to release to complete the series, and I, for one, can't wait...

By Jason Nimer

Before I get into the Dragon Ball Z Season Six review, I need to admit a
mistake I made in the review for season five. I incorrectly stated that Mr.
Satan (Hercule to those of us who started with the watered-down American dub on
Cartoon Network) made his first appearance during that season. I don't have much
of an explanation for the error beyond having seen all these episodes hundreds
of times and forgetting what happened when. Mr. Satan, in fact, makes his first
appearance in season six, sporting the white guy afro and brown gi (though to me
it looks more like a bathrobe) that every fan loves to ridicule and hate. Sorry
for the mix-up. Ok, on to the review.

Because season five and six of the show are so closely intertwined, I'm just
going to skip the whole introduction business and
give you a link to that review. Season six picks up right where five left
off, with the Saiyan father and son team of Goku and Gohan training in the Room
of Spirit and Time (Hyperbolic Time Chamber for American audiences) and Cell, in
his new Perfect form, announcing a new World Martial Arts Tournament where the
Z-fighters will all have a chance at bringing down the villain. Exciting stuff.

Season five had it's share of action to be sure, but it also served to give
these once-flat, static characters new depth, motivations and human frailties,
and every single character benefited from it. Explaining how Trunks, a boy from
the war-torn future, strove to match his father's strengths without surpassing
him, thus saving his pride, might seem a bit silly on paper. But if you are a
fan, you know the emotional struggle behind the events, and more than likely
this story arc is a favorite because of them.

Conversely, season six delivers the kind of over-the-top fights that have
made Dragon Ball Z famous, though the first few episodes in this season are more
in tune with the emotional struggles of season five. Gohan fights with his
father's old enemy, General Tao, Goku wanders the Earth searching for the Dragon
Balls and Piccolo, Trunks and Vegeta continue training for the upcoming Cell
Games. These episodes do drag on a little too long and are obviously filler
material, but the flashback episode to Goku's past has a poignant,
heart-wrenching story to tell. The episode reveals how Gohan got his name and
some of Goku and Chi-Chi's early life together as parents. The end of the
episode has Ox King, Goku, Gohan and Chi-Chi celebrating Gohan's 11th birthday,
which is both cute and sad - especially if you know what is coming.

Once the Cell Games start, though, all that touchy-feely stuff goes right out
the window. From the very second the first challenger steps up to fight Cell,
these episodes are action, action, ACTION. The fighting is made more spectacular
by the fact that by this point in the series, the animators and Akira Toriyama
himself had all but forgotten the cartoon-y look of the original Dragon Ball and
early DBZ. The speed, the attacks all are not only beautiful to behold, but
they move so quickly that you'll be flabbergasted that animation this detailed
can move at that speed. If one were to watch season six and follow up with some
of the previous season sets, it'll be tough to imagine why everyone thought the
fights with Raditz, Vegeta, Freiza and the Ginyu Force were the best, and best
looking, ever. When compared to season six's fights, all past villains seem like
a bunch of amateurs. As the epic battle with Cell nears it's last chapters, the
animation and design takes another leap forward, as if the people behind it knew
that these were the episodes that would keep fans talking years and years later.
If you don't believe me, just check out the end of Gohan's fight with Cell.
Animation that beautiful was unheard of when it first aired in Japan, and even
now, more than 15 years later, it still stands up as some of the best non-CGI
animation ever created.

Everyone you talk to about Dragon Ball Z will no doubt place season six's
knock-down, drag-out battle as a favorite, but for me personally, the season's,
and perhaps the entire series' best moment comes from Vegeta's actions toward
the end of the fight with Cell. Since I'd hate to ruin things if you haven't
seen the episodes, I'll only say this: Vegeta, once a prideful, uncaring warrior
with no regard for anyone or anything but himself, becomes instantly
sympathetic, and yes, even heroic. Being that the Saiyan prince has always been
my favorite cast member, his breaking character and playing the good guy here
feels even more monumental.

Nothing is perfect, though, and Dragon Ball Z is no exception. Three elements
found in these episodes serve to grind down the viewer's patience like a
blacksmith making a sword. The first (and least annoying) negative is the fact
that after we've seen all the fighters train and train to boost their powers,
only two Z-fighters ever actually take Cell on head-to-head, and it certainly
doesn't help my impression that Vegeta does little more than stand on the
sidelines and mutter, "Impossible!" every few minutes. The guy is supposed to be
the prince of all Saiyans; it would have been nice to see him at least land a
punch or two.

That complaint could be argued as personal bias on Vegeta's behalf, but the
other drawback will annoy every viewer, not just Vegeta's fans. As all this
battling is going on, Mr. Satan (actually referred to as Mr. Satan - yay for
faithful translation!), his protgs and a TV newsman are watching from the
sidelines. Obviously they are no match for Cell, but the show keeps cutting away
to them, and it's annoying every time. Mr. Satan talks a big game, but when it
comes to fighting, he comes down with a "stomachache." The news anchor continues
talking in his "broadcaster voice," despite the fact that his camera and
microphone are destroyed. If we were only shown these exchanges once or twice,
they could have been funny and interesting. Instead, you see these characters at
least once per episode, and they are more or less doing and saying the exact
same thing every single time. Annoying isn't a strong enough word for these
characters - more like putrid, despicable and worthy of whatever Cell could (and
should) have done to them.

Lastly, season six, like season four, ends in a very bizarre place. In season
four, the last episode had Bulma finding Trunks' time machine, despite the fact
that in the future, they only created one. The previous episode, which showed
the Z-fighters defeated by the Androids, felt like the season's end, and tacking
one more episode onto the end watered-down the tension and the whole concept.
Season six's penultimate episode had the remaining characters saying their
goodbyes and using the Dragon Balls. Then, for seemingly no reason, the season
ends with Trunks returning to the future and defeating the Cell and the Androids
of his timeline. Sure, the episode is pretty good, but the people of FUNimation
really should have taken into account how many people would be waiting on the
next set to see where the series would go. Instead, the season plays like Kill
Bill would have if Uma Thurman crossed off every name on her hit list by the end
of volume one. But after the credits, a screen would flash "Check out Kill Bill
volume two - coming soon" you'd probably be left with only one question: Why?
Dragon Ball Z season six feels the same way.

If you are a DBZ fan, you may have already picked this set up. If you're new
to the show, seasons five and six bookend the series' highest points. I still
recommend going back and watching the seasons in order. If you only care about
the action, well have at it. Now, FUNimation only has three more seasons to
release to complete the series, and I, for one, can't wait.